Added games are above the solid line.

@Orioles 3, Mariners 1: Chris Tillman won his 4th straight start, beating the team that developed him but dealt him away in the disastrous Bedard trade. Nick Markakis nipped Jason Vargas on his Achilles heel with a 2-run HR (2 out, 1-2 count in the 2nd), helping end his 5-start win streak. Baltimore has crept within a half-game of the wild card.

• Markakis has solved Baltimore’s leadoff problem, hitting .349 with 18 Runs in 24 games. Now they need to improve on the #2 spot’s .276 OBP, last in the majors.
• Tillman has 4 strong starts (6+ IP and 2 R or less) in 6 tries this year, after earning consistently bad marks in 3 prior campaigns (ERA from 5.40-5.87 in 11-13 starts). His 2.38 ERA is deceptive, as he got pummeled with unearned runs in his second outing, and his K rate is still ordinary. But his control has improved, and that alone gives him a fighting chance against a free-swinging team like Seattle.
• Pedro Strop‘s 1.29 ERA would be the lowest by an Oriole/Brown since 1915 (40+ IP).

Braves 6, @Phillies 1: Ben Sheets gave up his first HR but still made it 5-for-5 in quality starts, earning his 4th win with 7.1 solid innings — despite failing to notch a strikeout for the first time ever in an appearance of 5+ IP. All eight position players had a hit, and Sheets laid down two sac bunts. The key blow came in the 3rd, when team RBI leader Freddie Freeman broke a scoreless tie with a 2-out, 2-run double.

• Dan Uggla had his first 2-hit game since July 20, but is still hitting .155 in his last 54 games (1/3 of a season), with 4 HRs. His league-high 66 walks somewhat redeems his stickwork (.212 BA, 12 HRs), but it looks like this will be his 2nd straight year of OPS+ under 108, a level he reached in all 5 seasons in Miami, and his streaks of 6 straight years with 27+ HRs and 5 with 30+ are in jeopardy.
• Atlanta is 21-7 since Independence Day, opening a 4.5-game lead over the closest non-playoff team.
• Sheets has never pitched in the postseason, and I’ll be surprised if he gets there this year. He’s had injury troubles every year but one from 2005-11.
• Only Aroldis Chapman has a better SO/BB ratio and more IP than Philly’s Raul Valdes, who has 27 Ks and 4 walks in 22.2 IP.

Rockies 2, @Dodgers 0: Eric Young had 3 hits and scored both runs, and a quartet of Coloradans stymied the Dodgers on 5 hits (0-8 with RISP). LA remained a half-game back in the division and fell 4 back of the wild card.

• Chris Capuano has a 2.17 home ERA but hasn’t won there since May 27; LA has totaled 13 runs in his last 7 home starts.
• Fourth game in Rockies history (and first since 2001) with 11+ hits but no extra-baggers.
• Sixth game this year with no XBH for either side, and the first involving 2 NL teams.

@Brewers 6, Reds 3: Rookie backstop Martin Maldonado hit a HR and two doubles to lead a 12-hit, 3-HR assault on Bronson Arroyo and the Reds. Yovani Gallardo allowed a run in 7 IP for the second straight outing, and reached 10 wins for the 4th straight year.

• Maldonado is the 12th Brewers catcher with a 3-XBH game. Only Mike Matheny ever repeated the feat, and only Damian Miller ever had 4 XBH.
• Francisco Rodriguez came into a 5-1 game and quickly drummed up a save situation for his teammate. His last 7 games: 15 outs, 19 baserunners, 12 ER.
• With 63 wins, Gallardo is 10th on the Brewers’ career list. Each of his next 2 wins will move him up a notch, and 2 more would get him to #7. But how does he rate against current MLB starters? Because of his consistency — averaging a 110 ERA+ and 2.1 WAR since 2009, with no season better than 113 or 2.5 — you get a different answer depending on the window and the type of curtains. For 2009-12, he’s 18th in ERA+ among those with 700+ IP (he has 718) — but only 32 pitchers meet that requirement; if we drop the threshold to 600 IP, Gallardo falls to #26 out of 57. Changing to 2010-12 and 500+ IP, his 109 ERA+ ranks 23rd of 46. Switching to a WAR standard, he’s 43rd in SP WAR for 2010-12, 41st for 2009-12. He still has some work left if he’s going to reach the elite level; Milwaukee has him signed for at least 2 more years at a reasonable salary.

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Game of the Night: @Tigers 7, Yankees 2: An error by Justin Verlander in the 5th helped wipe out an early 2-0 lead from HRs by Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera (the latter colossal). But Ivan Nova had no command, and Detroit strafed him for hit after hit, tallying 5 more runs on 8 singles in the 5th and 6th. Every starting Tiger had at least one hit, and JV tied career highs of 14 strikeouts (retaking the MLB lead) and 132 pitches, his 75th straight game of 100+ pitches.

• Verlander began the 8th with his only walk, but fanned the next 3. He tossed 21 pitches in that frame with a 5-run lead. True, the bullpen is sketchy and worn, and JV didn’t have many stressful innings, and he ought to know his body by now. But he’s leading the league in pitches for the 3rd time in 4 years (he was 4 off the lead in 2010), and if an injury does come soon, fingers will be pointed.
• The last 14-K effort against the Bombers was in 1999, Pedro‘s 17-K 1-hitter.
• Eric Chavez had 3 of the 8 hits off Verlander, with a pair of leadoff doubles. He’s reached 200 PAs for the first time since 2007, and is hitting .275 and slugging .495.
• Ichiro Suzuki‘s 12-game hitting streak ended in an 0-4 with his first 3 Yankee strikeouts, tying his career high. He had been 17 for 51 against Verlander.

Nationals 5, @Astros 4 (11): Jose Altuve brought Houston level with a 1-out double in the 9th, but they came up empty in 2 tries with the winning run on 3rd, and the game went on. Well, if you play long enough, this kind of team will beat themselves, and Houston obliged in the 11th, with 3 separate blunders on a bunt play that became an instant blooper classic.

• The official scoring of a hit on that bunt seems an act of pure mercy; I’d have called it 3 errors. When two infielders pinball off each other and deflect away a ball that either one could have handled easily, how is that a hit?
• Washington’s 14 hits with no extra-baggers is a new MLB season high and their most since 1979.

@White Sox 4, Royals 2: With one potent swing in the bottom-8th, Gordon Beckham broke both the tie and his 20-game RBI drought. KC squandered a 3rd-and-1st, no-out threat in the top half, including a failed squeeze. Chris Sale allowed 2 HRs for the first time, but still worked 8 efficient innings (101 pitches, no walks, 7 Ks) and rose to 13-3, 2.59.

• 3 Ks gave Adam Dunn 159, which would have been a record 50 years ago. But he has one-third of the season to get the necessary 65 Ks, and we have every confidence in him.
• No HR for A.J. Pierzynski, but he went 2 for 3 with an RBI double.

Twins 14, @Indians 3: The team that started Cleveland’s losing streak with an 11-0 pasting kicked it into double-digits with a 10-run 2nd that started with back-to-back HRs and ended with 8 unearned runs scored after 2 were out. Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit all homered and scored twice in that outburst. Scott Diamond worked 7 solid innings (2 ER) and is 10-5, 2.91 — as many wins as any other 3 Twins starters.

• Ben Revere had 4 hits and 3 Runs, as his hitting streak reached 20 games (33 for 85). He’s still looking for his first career HR after 204 games and 842 PAs; he has 187 more PAs than any other homerless active player and 590 more than any active non-pitcher.
• One more loss would match the Tribe’s longest skid since before FDR was president.

@Red Sox 9, Rangers 2: After dropping 4 of the first 5 meetings by a combined 39-12, Boston got a little payback in their first look at Yu Darvish, and got back to .500 in the bargain. Texas’s big investment yielded 6 runs and 15 runners in 6.2 IP; he’s 1-4, 7.04 in his last 6 starts, adding a run to his ERA (4.57). Dustin Pedroia (3 doubles) had his 7th career game of 3+ XBH, but his first this season.

• Aaron Cook (1 R, 7 IP, 15 groundballs and 2 DPs) matched his season high with 2 strikeouts, but the effort was marred by 3 walks — the first time in 9 starts that he’s given more than one pass. For the year, he has 6 Ks and 7 walks in 51.2 IP; at these rates, he’ll join Eppa Rixey (1932-33) and Slim Sallee (1919-20) as the only modern pitchers with 9+ starts and both SO/9 and BB/9 of 1.3 or less.
• 3 hits and 3 Runs for Jacoby Ellsbury, but he still has just 1 HR in 117 ABs.
• Texas is 13-16 since July 1.

Angels 4, @Athletics 0: Jered Weaver (SHO) won his 9th straight start, one shy of Chuck Finley‘s franchise record, and became the first pitcher with 15 wins this year. Weaver is 15-1 with a 2.13 ERA, but — heh-heh — his Mulligan ERA is 1.62 (8 ER in his only loss).

• Erick Aybar led the offense with 3 hits and 2 Runs, while Mike Trout reached 4 times and swiped 3 bags.
• In case you’re wondering, the fewest losses in a 20-win season is 3, done 5 times, last by Cliff Lee in 2008.